The ClubSwan 125 takes Nautor’s Swan well into the high-performance superyacht realm. Its rotating C-foil ­reduces the boat’s displacement to a skimming attitude. (Eva-Stina Kjellman/)

More than four years since work began on the largest-ever creation from Nautor’s Swan, the ClubSwan 125, Skorpios finally launched for its Russian owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev, and by the time you read this, the giant new craft will have competed in its first event, the Rolex Fastnet Race. The Italian-owned Finnish builder claims it to be the fastest monohull ever launched. This was further confirmed when the RORC Rating Office awarded the boat its highest-ever IRC TCC of 2.149.

Seeing the yacht at first glance, aside from the striking yellow scorpion design that extends from its black carbon sails down to the black carbon hull (a trust associated with Rybolovlev owns the Greek island after which the yacht is named), Skorpios resembles an elongated VO70. It feels like one too, from the moment you step on board. It’s lightweight for its size, rocking around in waves unlike a more displaced superyacht. This is less surprising given it was designed by the doyen of the VO70, Juan Kouyoumdjian. However, since then, Juan K. has designed George David’s Rambler 88 and even the ClubSwan 36 one-design, of which both have very different hull forms…

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Two of the most famous (okay, one, Ganbare is the most famous) One-Tonners in the world, the Britt Chance designed Resolute Salmon, and the Doug Peterson designed Ganbare.  Ganbare should have won the 1973 Worlds if not for a mark rounded the wrong way in the distance race, and resolute Salmon winning it all in 1976, despite a horrible 20th in the distance race. Her other finishes were 4-1-1-4…

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This is a cool story. Kid’s got some balls, no doubt!

This Thursday at 16:05, Melwin Fink crossed the finish line of the first stage of the 23rd Mini Transat Eurochef, completing the 1,350 mile course between Sables d’Olonne and Santa Cruz de La Palma in the first position in Series boats. The skipper of the Pogo 3 in the colors of SignForCom who took control of the fleet on October 2, south of Cape Finisterre, has shown daring by continuing his race when his competitors have made the choice to collectively take shelter to avoid the passage of an active front off Galicia. From then on, he gained a more than substantial lead over his rivals before achieving a remarkable trajectory at the end of the race. The young German sailor, only 19 years old, certainly struck a big blow and took a good advantage before Act 2 of the event.

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The fully crewed, round-the-world Ocean Race has experienced tremendous change over the years. From the 1993 transition to a one-design fleet to an ever-shifting route, what began as the amateur Whitbread Round the World Yacht Regatta in 1972 is a very different race today.

The latest round of updates include some of the biggest changes ever, and if this summer’s preliminary offshore lap of the Iberian Peninsula is anything to go by, it’s going to be an exciting new era for both sailors and spectators.

The Ocean Race Europe, as the race was called, not only provided The Ocean Race sailors a chance to test their mettle, but also provided its European fan base multiple opportunities to see their favorite teams in action. The European offshoot of the former Volvo Ocean Race began in May in Lorient, France, after which it made stopovers at Cascais, Portugal, and Alicante, Spain, before concluding in Genoa, Italy. In addition to the three offshore portions of the regatta, there were also a pair of coastal races, which provided “bonus points” for the top three finishers in each…

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Over the past few days Sail Newport in Newport, RI, hosted 30 5O5s from 12 states and two countries competing in the 2021 5O5 North Americans. In the end, the always-strong California 5O5 sailing fleet put in another impressive performance, with the Bay Area’s Mike Martin and Adam Lowry, who are also the current world champions, taking the top spot. Mike Holt and Carl Smit from Santa Cruz took second, and Nic Baird and Eric Anderson (Redwood City) took fourth, with Howie Hamlin and Jeff Nelson from Southern California taking fifth.

Newport showed off sunshine, breeze and a full spectrum of sparkling conditions. Photo/videographer Ty Baird caught some great drone action in the video below.

It was tight racing for the top two positions when, after Friday’s racing, in a classic high-teens southwesterly with enormous ground swell from an offshore storm, Holt and Smit took the day with a 2-1-1 to Martin/Lowry’s 1-4-2 and moved to within two points for the overall lead. The weekend continued with good breezes and challenging conditions. The racing remained tight, but the Martin/Lowry duo ended up on top, finishing with two bullets.

The California 5O5 sailors push each other with practice racing when they’re back home, and it shows whenever they’re on the road. To see the full results click here.

The post East Coast 5O5 North Americans with West Coast Winners appeared first on Latitude38.

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Pulling out in front of the crazy competitive Menorca 52 Super Series after five races is Platoon. Results here. Photo by Max Ranchi.

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Straight off the PR e-mail…

Northern Light Composites has chosen the International Boat Show to unveil the first prototype of ecoracer, the recyclable sportboat designed by Matteo Polli with the aim of combining performance and sustainability. Ecoracer is present on land, in the Sailing World Area at stand YB01, thanks to the hospitality of the International Boat Show and Confindustria Nautica. During the awards ceremony of the Design Innovation Award, an award that aims to promote excellence in the nautical sector, the project of the young Friulian startup was awarded in the category reserved for sailing vessels up to 10 meters.

The jury of the award was chaired by Admiral Nicola Carlone, and the member of the steering committee Luisa Bocchietto. The other members of the jury were Silvia Piardi, professor of design at the Milan Polytechnic, Andrea Ratti, professor of yacht design at the Milan Polytechnic, Franco Michienzi, director of the magazine “Barche”, Nabil Farrat, editor of the magazine “Yachts and Boats ”, and Carlotta de Bevilacqua, president and CEO of Artemide. The 7.69-meter boat is de facto built with nlcomp’s rComposite technology: thermoplastic matrix, linen fibers for the hull and deck and the Atlas by NMG Europe recyclable core…

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Each Olympic cycle brings something unique. Classes are introduced and discontinued, formats evolve and new stars arise through incredible dedication, hard work, and smarter training practices. One constant through every recent olympiad, however, is the continual push towards data-driven performance analytics.

Tokyo 2021 saw Japan’s Judo Federation use algorithmic formulas to rank their athletes, computer vision used in beach volleyball, and machine learning and AI employed by USA surfing. Every cycle becomes more professional and performance-obsessed, and data technology spearheads that movement.

Read on.

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Thinking of spending cyclone season in the South Pacific? Plenty of sailors take the chance every year, with the recent travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic making this an especially popular option in 2020.

Cyclone season in this part of the world runs from November to April, with the areas most affected stretching from French Polynesia to New Caledonia. To avoid getting in trouble you either need to sail through the entire region in a single season, make a detour to higher latitudes or New Zealand, or be prepared for storms…

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Offshore racing yacht owners in south-east Queensland looking to qualify for major events, including the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race, have had their task made much easier via a new event organised by Southport Yacht Club.

Titled the South-East Queensland Ocean Racing Qualifier, the 220-nautical-mile passage race will start on Moreton Bay on November 12. The course is designed to test sailing and navigation skills in smooth water and rough plus varying tidal conditions by day and night.

“The need for this race became apparent at the recent South-East Queensland Offshore Yacht Owners Forum hosted by Southport Yacht Club,” said the club’s Vice Commodore, Drew Jones…

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Newport, R.I. — The 7th Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup wrapped up on Saturday after five days of highly competitive racing in an international fleet that saw the Southern Yacht Club (SYC) of New Orleans best a fleet of 19 teams from Europe, Canada, Bermuda and around the US for the second time in this event’s seven-year history. The all-Corinthian event was raced in identically rigged IC37s showcasing pure one design boats raced at the highest level. The close contest was also a reminder of how exciting non-professional sailing is and how international club teams ignite a great deal of support and enthusiasm as a result…

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From our Fabulous Forums, brought to you by Marlow Ropes.

This really happened in today’s race.  The SI (for reasons that made sense to nobody but the RC) specified a starboard rounding.  WTF?  Unfortunately, one boat didn’t read the SI carefully enough and thought they were doing a port rounding.

As far as I can tell, rule 18 applies; both boats are required to leave the mark on the same side (regardless of the fact that one of them doesn’t know that) and they’re both in the zone.  None of the exceptions in 18.1(a)-(d) apply.  They’re clearly overlapped, so 18.2 applies but beats me which boat is inside or outside.  The next mark was upwind, so proper course to the next mark for S would be to harden up to close-hauled on starboard, not that I think that matters to the rule.

Any idea what rules actually apply here?  In reality, S hailed to P that this was a starboard rounding and P headed up to round the proper way, several boat-lengths behind P, and got to chat about it back at the bar.  I was the skipper of S.  Last I saw, the skipper of P was looking for the RC chair to give him shit about putting starboard roundings in the SI. Jump in.

Title inspiration can be found here.

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